A registry is a collection of information about individuals, usually focused around a specific diagnosis or condition. Many registries collect information about people who have a specific disease or condition, while others seek participants of varying health status who may be willing to participate in research about a particular disease. Individuals provide information about themselves to these registries on a voluntary basis. Registries can be sponsored by a government agency, nonprofit organization, health care facility, or private company. It’s always good to check first to know who sponsors the registry – or – look for information on a registry’s site to know about their sponsor(s).
Registries can provide health care professionals and researchers with first-hand information about people with certain conditions, both individually and as a group, and over time, to increase our understanding of that condition. Some registries collect information that can be used to track trends about the number of people with diseases, treatments, and more. Other registries invite people to sign up to be contacted about participating in clinical research. These ask very basic questions about health history that would help determine whether someone is possibly eligible to join a research study.
Government agencies have strict privacy requirements set by law such as the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA), and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). If registries have followed all of these rules, the likelihood of identifiable personal information being shared is very small.
Participation in a registry is likely to increase what we know about a specific condition, help health care professionals improve treatment, and allow researchers to design better studies on a particular condition, including development and testing of new treatments. Being part of a clinical trials registry can help people interested in participating in research connect with clinical investigators. However, individuals (and their families) who choose to participate in a registry should understand that participation will not guarantee a treatment or cure for their condition or that they will be eligible to join a study.
Usually, a federally-funded registry has a very limited list of individuals (registry coordinator) who may have access to participants’ personal, identifying information. Those individuals must be specially trained and certified regarding information security requirements.
The data collected in a disease registry is stripped of personal information. It belongs to the sponsor of the registry, and depending on how the registry is set up, may be shared with the participants and their families, and approved health care professionals and researchers. However, personal, identifying information is kept private. Usually, a registry has a governing committee that makes decisions about how the data can be used or shared.
Yes. Registries are free and voluntary; there is no penalty for choosing to withdraw at any point.
Clinical Trials are part of clinical research and at the heart of all medical advances. Clinical trials look at new ways to prevent, detect, or treat disease. Clinical trials can study:
-New drugs or new combinations of drugs
-New ways of doing surgery
-New medical devices
-New ways to use existing treatments
-New ways to change behaviors to improve health
-New ways to improve the quality of life for people with acute or chronic illnesses
The goal of clinical trials is to determine if these treatment, prevention, and behavior approaches are safe and effective.
People take part in clinical trials for many reasons. Healthy volunteers say they take part to help others and to contribute to moving science forward. People with an illness or disease also take part to help others, but also to possibly receive the newest treatment and to have added (or extra) care and attention from the clinical trial staff. Clinical trials offer hope for many people and a chance to help researchers find better treatments for others in the future.
The idea for a clinical trial often starts in the lab. After researchers test new treatments or procedures in the lab and in animals, the most promising treatments are moved into clinical trials. As new treatments move through a series of steps called phases, more information is gained about the treatment, its risks, and its effectiveness.
Informed consent is the process of providing you with key information about a research study before you decide whether to accept the offer to take part. The process of informed consent continues throughout the study. To help you decide whether to take part, members of the research team explain the details of the study. If you do not understand English, a translator or interpreter may be provided. The research team provides an informed consent document that includes details about the study, such as its purpose, how long it’s expected to last, tests or procedures that will be done as part of the research, and who to contact for further information. The informed consent document also explains risks and potential benefits. You can then decide whether to sign the document. Taking part in a clinical trial is voluntary and you can leave the study at any time.
There are different types of clinical trials.
-Prevention trials look for better ways to prevent a disease in people who have never had the disease or to prevent the disease from returning. Approaches may include medicines, vaccines, or lifestyle changes.
-Screening trials test new ways for detecting diseases or health conditions.
-Diagnostic trials study or compare tests or procedures for diagnosing a particular disease or condition.
-Treatment trials test new treatments, new combinations of drugs, or new approaches to surgery or radiation therapy.
-Behavioral trials evaluate or compare ways to promote behavioral changes designed to improve health.
-Quality of life trials (or supportive care trials) explore and measure ways to improve the comfort and quality of life of people with conditions or illnesses.
In clinical trials that compare a new product or therapy with another that already exists, researchers try to determine if the new one is as good, or better than, the existing one. In some studies, you may be assigned to receive a placebo (an inactive product that resembles the test product, but without its treatment value).
Comparing a new product with a placebo can be the fastest and most reliable way to show the new product’s effectiveness. However, placebos are not used if you would be put at risk — particularly in the study of treatments for serious illnesses — by not having effective therapy. You will be told if placebos are used in the study before entering a trial.
Randomization is the process by which treatments are assigned to participants by chance rather than by choice. This is done to avoid any bias in assigning volunteers to get one treatment or another. The effects of each treatment are compared at specific points during a trial. If one treatment is found superior, the trial is stopped so that the most volunteers receive the more beneficial treatment.
"Blinded" (or "masked") studies are designed to prevent members of the research team and study participants from influencing the results. Blinding allows the collection of scientifically accurate data. In single-blind ("single-masked") studies, you are not told what is being given, but the research team knows. In a double-blind study, neither you nor the research team are told what you are given; only the pharmacist knows. Members of the research team are not told which participants are receiving which treatment, in order to reduce bias. If medically necessary, however, it is always possible to find out which treatment you are receiving.
Ethical guidelines
The goal of clinical research is to develop knowledge that improves human health or increases understanding of human biology. People who take part in clinical research make it possible for this to occur. The path to finding out if a new drug is safe or effective is to test it on patients in clinical trials. The purpose of ethical guidelines is both to protect patients and healthy volunteers, and to preserve the integrity of the science.
Informed consent
Informed consent is the process of learning the key facts about a clinical trial before deciding whether to participate. The process of providing information to participants continues throughout the study. To help you decide whether to take part, members of the research team explain the study. The research team provides an informed consent document, which includes such details about the study as its purpose, duration, required procedures, and who to contact for various purposes. The informed consent document also explains risks and potential benefits.
If you decide to enroll in the trial, you will need to sign the informed consent document. You are free to withdraw from the study at any time.
IRB review
Most, but not all, clinical trials in the United States are approved and monitored by an Institutional Review Board (IRB) to ensure that the risks are minimal when compared with potential benefits. An IRB is an independent committee that consists of physicians, statisticians, and members of the community who ensure that clinical trials are ethical and that the rights of participants are protected. You should ask the sponsor or research coordinator whether the research you are considering participating in was reviewed by an IRB.
After a clinical trial is completed, the researchers carefully examine information collected during the study before making decisions about the meaning of the findings and about the need for further testing. After a phase I or II trial, the researchers decide whether to move on to the next phase or to stop testing the treatment or procedure because it was unsafe or not effective. When a phase III trial is completed, the researchers examine the information and decide whether the results have medical importance.
Results from clinical trials are often published in peer-reviewed scientific journals. Peer review is a process by which experts review the report before it is published to ensure that the analysis and conclusions are sound. If the results are particularly important, they may be featured in the news, and discussed at scientific meetings and by patient advocacy groups before or after they are published in a scientific journal. Once a new approach has been proven safe and effective in a clinical trial, it may become a new standard of medical practice.
Registries focused on specific diseases or conditions collect information voluntarily from people with those conditions. Clinical trials registries collect basic health information from people who agree to be contacted about participating in future clinical trials or studies.
A clinical trial is the study of new ways to prevent, detect or treat diseases or conditions. Volunteering for a registry does not mean a person has signed up for a clinical trial. Participation in a disease registry can sometimes become a first step toward participation in a clinical trial, but registries and specific trials are not directly linked.
For any questions about participation or any issues that may arise, registries provide a contact, usually the registry coordinator.